Grading RGGI's Success (PDF)

Submitted by Jake Blumgart on February 1, 2010 - 1:33pm

Date Published:

Mon, 02/01/2010

Environmental Northeast. February 2010.

“RGGI At One Year” evaluates the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (the first carbon cap-and-trade program in the U.S.). The authors provide a series of grades for the policy’s first year in action. Five features of the program are graded: Auctions, Funding, Implementation, Offsets, Cap Level, and Governance. The study finds that the program has been very successful (with minimal effects on consumer prices thus far). But regional emissions dropped 25-35 percent in 2009 (partially due to the recession), further proving the program’s success.